Shade
03-20-2003, 05:33 AM
I'll upload a .doc version of this to my lagtastic website at
www.geocities.com/lordshade. The version in this email won't contain
footnotes, which is where I note a lot of important info.
I tried to email this to the list, but it bounced because of length.
Please feel free to rip this to shreds!
------------------
An alternative method to determine bloodline and abilities. Please remember
that this a very rough first draft, not playtested at all, and written with
a lot of recent discussion about bloodlines in mind.
I propose this system as an alternative to the one presented in the BRCS
0.0 Draft. The system is designed with a number of things in mind: game
balance, simplicity of use, preservation of the original rules, and
addressing major problems. The system tries to give players and DMs a lot
of options to decide how they want to do things in their own game.
I make a very important distinction in this system between
adventuring/interpersonal play and domain play.
Here's how the system works.
1. Determine your ability scores after consulting your DM; your DM will
tell you whether your campaign is using a point-buy system or rolling=
system.
2. Choose race.
3. After consulting the DM, choose whether your character will be a
commoner or a scion.
4. If your character is a commoner, continue with the character creation
process as normal.
5. If your character is a scion, consult your DM. Your DM will tell you
whether your campaign is using a point-buy system for bloodlines or a
random determination system.
6. If your campaign is using random determination for bloodlines, consult
the tables in the 2e Birthright Rulebook. After rolling d100, determine
your bloodline strength. Use the table on p.34 of the BRCS Draft to
determine derivation. Return to the 2nd edition BR rulebook to determine
the remaining characteristics of your bloodline.
7. If your campaign is using the point-buy system for bloodlines, refer to
the following table:
Point buy system for bloodlines.
The average bloodline score, using Table 10 on p. 20 of the Birthright
Rulebook, is 19.7. Math: .25(10)+.4(17.5)+.3(28)+.05(36) =3D 19.7. From this=
,
I've decided that the average point buy result for this system should be a
minor or major bloodline in the 18-21 range.
The default number of points which you have to spend is 20. Your DM may
decide to increase or decrease the number of points you get for a bloodline
point buy in your campaign. You can spend points on the following things:
" Each point you spend gets you 1 point of bloodline score.
" Pick a derivation. Alternatively, your DM may decide to determine
derivation randomly using the table on p.34 of the BRCS Draft.
" Consult the following table to see how many blood abilities are available
in your character's bloodline. These abilities are not useable at the
beginning of play; your character must learn to use them (covered below).
You may choose these yourself, or they may be determined randomly, at the
DMs discretion.
Score Abilities
1-10 None
11-19 1 Minor
20-28 2 Minor
29-35 1 Minor, 1 Major
36-42 2 Minor, 1 Major
43-50 1 Minor, 1 Major, 1 Great
51-60 2 Minor, 1 Major, 1 Great
61-70 1 Minor, 2 Major, 1 Great
71-80 2 Minor, 2 Major, 1 Great
81-90 2 Minor, 1 Major, 2 Great
91-100 2 Minor, 2 Major, 2 Great
100+ 3 Minor, 2 Major, 2 Great
" You may spend 1 point to start with the Bloodmark blood ability, which
can be a benefit and a hindrance.=20
" You may spend up to 2 additional points adding minor blood abilities to
your bloodline. Each point spent gets you 1 additional minor ability in
your line. Of course, you cannot use these abilities automatically, your
character must learn to use them during play.
" You may spend 2 points improving a minor ability to a major ability. For
instance, if your DM decided on a 20 point buy for bloodlines, and you
spent 17 points on bloodline score and you have 2 minor abilities (1 extra
purchased for 1 point), you may spend your remaining 2 points to upgrade
one of your minor blood abilities to a major blood ability, giving you
access to 1 minor and 1 major.
" At the DMs discretion, you may spend 4 points upgrading a major ability
to a great ability. This option is generally only suitable if the DM allows
more than a 20-point bloodline build.
It is important to note: once your bloodline score has been used to
determine the number of blood abilities in your line, IT IS NO LONGER USED
AT THE ADVENTURING LEVEL OF PLAY!! The only thing the bloodline score
determines, from here on out, is how many RP your character can collect by
ruling a domain. This is unchanged from the 2nd edition rules.
At this stage, you have determined your bloodline score, derivation, and
number of blood abilities available in your line. To determine your
bloodline strength, simply compare your bloodline score to the following
table:
Score Strength
None Unblooded
0 Divested
1-13 Tainted
14-22 Minor
23-32 Major
33-64 Great
65+ True
Note: this table is determined using the average scores for various
bloodlines, as described on p. 20 of the original BR rulebook. Tainted is
average 10, Minor is average 17.5, so the cutoff is at 13, etc.
Once your bloodline strength is determined, it can only change at the
discretion of the DM, unless you decide to divest your bloodline, in which
case your bloodline score becomes 0 and your strength becomes divested.
Your bloodline score may increase or decrease during play, but your
strength only changes if the DM decides a change is warranted. For
instance, you may start with a bloodline score of 20 (minor) and through
play, increase it to 40. However, it remains a minor bloodline unless the
DM decides to promote it to major or great.
Optional Rule: Your DM may use the following table to determine ranges for
bloodlines:
Strength Score Range
Tainted 4-16
Minor 5-30
Major 8-48
Great 8-64
True 35+
If your bloodline moves out of the proscribed ranges, your bloodline
strength automatically changes to the next highest or lowest category. For
instance, if you have a minor bloodline (26), and during play it increases
to 31, your bloodline strength automatically increases to major. Likewise,
if you have a major bloodline, and your score falls below 8, your bloodline
strength automatically becomes minor.
At this point, your character's bloodline and blood abilities available to
him should be fully fleshed out. Proceed as normal with the character
creation process, choosing feats, classes, skills, and equipment (and
whatever else your DM requires).
Furthermore, at this point in the process, there should be absolutely no
difference between a scion and a commoner at the adventuring level of play.
Both are exactly the same level, have the same number of experience points
(0 if starting at level 1), have the same attributes (if using a point buy
or discounting luck on dice), and rolled hit points the same way. The only
potential advantage the scion has at the adventuring level of play is the
Bloodmark ability, which may or may not be useful, depending on the
campaign (and exactly what we finally decide its effect is). In any case
the Bloodmark ability alone should not be enough to significantly alter the
balance between a scion and a commoner.
The main difference between the scion and the commoner is that the scion
has a Bloodline score, and can therefore participate at the domain level of
play by collecting regency points. Bloodline score works the same as 2e in
all other ways - you collect RP equal to your bloodline score, you have to
spend RP equal to your bloodline score+1 to raise it by one point, etc,
etc. I don't consider this an imbalance because commoners were never meant
to participate at the domain level of play.
Acquiring Blood Abilities
As we all know, the blood abilities themselves are the kicker when trying
to balance scions versus commoners. In 2e this problem was addressed by
giving commoners a 10% xp bonus. In order to preserve the flavor of 2e as
well as a semblance of balance, some kind of xp penalty should be assessed
against scions.=20
This system requires a scion to pay experience points to learn how to use a
blood ability. By default there is no time requirement; DMs can require you
to spend time to learn your blood abilities, or you can pay xp and
immediately use your blood abilities right after the expenditure of xp.=20
The way this works is that each blood ability is compared to a magical
item. After determining what the blood ability would be like if it were a
magical item, consult the DMG for the item creation costs of that ability.
Since blood abilities don't take up item slots, the x2 multiplier for
"slotless" items should always be used. After taking all modifiers to the
base price into account, divide by 25 (to get the xp cost), which is the
cost of "learning" the blood ability.=20
XP spent in this manner is forever lost, just like XP invested in an item.
If for whatever reason you become unblooded or lose your blood abilities,
that XP is lost, just as if a magical item of yours was lost or destroyed.
Here are a few examples (my conversions for blood abilities are not
necessarily taken from the BRCS doc):
Let's start with the simplest of blood abilities, Heightened Ability=
(minor).
Basaia's Heightened Ability (minor) gives a +2 bloodline bonus to
Intelligence. It is a constant effect. Checking the DMG for the price of a
Headband of Intellect +2, we see that it is 4000gp (bonus squared x1000).
Applying the modifier for slotless (x2) we get 8000. The XP cost to make
one is 1/25 the base price, or 320xp in this case. So to "learn" to use
Heightened Ability (minor), you have to spend 320 of your experience
points. Here's an example:
Jimbob is a scion who (using the point buy) has a bloodline of Br, minor,
20. This gives him 2 minor abilities (which can be randomly determined
using the tables on pp. 39-40 of the BRCS draft or chosen by the player, at
the discretion of the DM) one of which is Heightened Ability. Jimbob is
also a level 1 fighter, with 0 experience. Since he has no experience, he
can't "spend" any of it on blood abilities. Therefore, he is exactly equal
to his longtime friend Joe Blow, who is an unblooded commoner, and also a
1st level fighter with 0 xp.
Now let's say each of our heroes gain 2000xp , enough to make them both 2nd
level fighters. At this point Jimbob can choose to "spend" 320 of his
experience points to activate his Heightened Ability (Brenna's dexterity).
He now has 1680 xp and a +2 bloodline bonus to his dexterity score, whereas
Joe Blow has 2000xp.
Now I am aware that this method doesn't match the 10% xp bonus of second
edition. For instance, in our example above Joe Blow is 19% ahead in
experience points. At level 20, his XP advantage would be minuscule. To me
it is not a huge problem, but YMMV. I'd like to hear any ideas about how to
solve this issue.
Heightened Ability scales really well, to Heightened Ability (major)
granting a +4, and great granting a +6. The XP costs would be 1280xp and
2880xp, respectively.
A couple more conversions (I am trying to find different examples that
cause problems in different ways):
Alter Appearance: the scion can cast change self once per day, with caster
level =3D character level. This is problematic because for magical items, th=
e
caster level cost is fixed. For this ability I will assume caster level 10
for price purposes because it is close to the middle (assuming you buy it
at level 1 and keep using it through level 20). Another problem comes to
mind: a blood ability is not spell trigger, command word, or use-activated.
How do you calculate the costs for items that cast a spell simply by force
of will? If someone can point me to the right answer I would be most
appreciative.
Alertness: This counts as a virtual Alertness feat (for the purposes of
prereqs). You get a +2 to spot and listen. This is easy to convert. 4^2 x
20gp x 2 =3D 640gp base price, or an XP cost of 25.6 (round to 25). This is =
a
really cheap blood ability to buy; good thing the system restricts how many
blood abilities you can have! This would be a good case to argue for
converting the gold cost as well. In that case the xp cost would become a
more respectable 153.6.
Resistance, Poison (minor): This ability grants a +4 bloodline bonus to
saves vs poison. This converts really easily as a periapt of proof against
poison, 4000gp base price. XP cost to learn it would be 320xp.
Travel (great): Let's compare this to the Helm of Teleportation. Since
Travel is useable only once a day, and HoT is useable 3/day, so let's
divide the base cost of the helm (48,600) by 3, for a total of 16,200. Now
the helm has no restrictions on its use, but Travel does, so let's just say
that travel is about half as useful, resulting in a divide by 2. However,
since Travel is slotless, we multiply by 2. Still at 16,200. Now divide by
25, and we get an XP cost of 648. A little cheap for something as powerful
as Travel, but I didn't claim this system was perfect. If we use the x6 for
the gold here we get a cost of 3888xp, which sounds more reasonable.
Enhanced Sense (Brenna): This gives the sight and hearing of cats;
according to the BRCS doc, 60ft darkvision and +2 on listen checks. Pretty
close to the goggles of night, which are 8000gp base cost. So we take
(8000gp + (2^2 x 20)) x 2 / 25 for a total of 646.6xp. Think this is about
as powerful as Travel? I doubt it=85 but that's probably more an indication
of the prices for items being out of whack in the DMG.
Unreadable Thoughts: pretty close to the Ring of Mind Shielding. 8000gp
base cost, comes out to 640xp. Seems reasonable for this ability (twice as
useful as Heightened Ability minor).
Obviously this system is far from perfect. We may have to abandon strict
conversions from DMG prices and just assign XP costs to blood abilities. I
don't know yet - I need some feedback, as well as some more time to think.
The system does have several things going for it
1. It puts the CHOICE in the hands of players whether or not to be behind
in XP. It doesn't automatically hamstring scions like the ECL and bloodline
as a 7th ability score systems do. If you want your scion/regent to be just
as competitive as your commoner friend, you can continue your adventuring
and just choose not to devote any time to learning how to use your blood
abilities. Overall, pure balance between scions and commoners is preserved
for the purposes of challenge ratings and such, hopefully satisfying one
group of people. At the same time this system makes scions slightly more
powerful in that 1) they have a choice to buy blood abilities, and
versatility is a form of power and 2) they can get access to some "magic
items" in a rare-magic setting, thereby hopefully satisfying the people in
the "scions should be stronger" camp.
2. This is actually 2 different systems. A character can still have a
bloodline without having any blood abilities (in theory). The blood
abilities are what cause the balance of power to shift in favor of the
scions, not the bloodline score itself (which has no impact on
adventuring). Theoretically we could still use the point-buy system to buy
bloodline but use ECLs to determine blood abilities, for example.
3. The XP for bloodline system avoids the mess you get when you use the ECL
for bloodline system, and you have a scion that suddenly loses his
bloodline. Say you have a character with a +2 ECL bloodline who is
character level 11, class level 9 (55,000 xp). What happens if he gets
divested of his bloodline? Do his experience points suddenly fall to 36,000
(level 9)? Does he suddenly get to add new class levels? What happens when
he gets his bloodline back?
ECL for bloodlines is not a robust system because bloodline scores are
generally supposed to vary widely during play. In very few campaigns will
your bloodline remain static for your character's whole life.
4. The system is also easily houseruled. Again the system gives the
players/DM the choice of enforcing balance among PCs (bloodline point buy,
nobody gets hosed by bad rolls) and allowing the DM to easily adjust the
power level of the campaign (increase/decrease the bloodline buy points).
There's a second choice built in: DMs that liked the randomness of
bloodlines can continue to use the old system without a problem (perhaps
they want to use random for NPCs but point-buy for PCs). NPCs still have
to pay XP costs to learn their blood abilities, just like PCs.
5. It preserves the "spirit" of 2e, by creating a way in which commoners
can be ahead of scions in experience.
6. Assuming we get the XP costs for blood abilities worked out, it will be
very simple to use.
7. The system fully incorporates 3e mechanics at the adventuring level of
play (blood abilities).
8. The system helps alleviate (to some extent) the shortage of magical
items in Cerilia, and the impact that lack of items can have on CRs.
Problems with the system. There are a few I can think of right away:
1. The XP costs for blood abilities may be way out of whack. This isn't a
problem symptomatic of the system; we can easily change the individual
costs of blood abilities without affecting how the system works as a whole.
This is the part that I'll need the most help tweaking, since I don't know
the 3e item creation rules inside and out yet.
2. Scions are effectively getting an item creation feat for free. There's
an easy way to solve this if we do decide it is a problem: require a scion
to take the "blooded scion" feat before he can spend XP on blood abilities.
Blooded scion will essentially function like a specialized item creation
feat that allows you to expend XP to learn blood abilities that are
available to you in your bloodline (predetermined in most cases).
3. The XP penalty for scions, in terms of a percentage, will widely from
the 10% baseline in 2e. The reason is that XP costs for bloodlines are a
flat expediture rather than multiplicative like an XP bonus. I don't see
this as a big deal because in 2e the 10% bonus only really mattered at high
level, and in this system the effect of the XP costs are felt throughout
(since they tend to be larger as a percentage than 10% at the early levels,
which is where most of BR gaming takes place).
www.geocities.com/lordshade. The version in this email won't contain
footnotes, which is where I note a lot of important info.
I tried to email this to the list, but it bounced because of length.
Please feel free to rip this to shreds!
------------------
An alternative method to determine bloodline and abilities. Please remember
that this a very rough first draft, not playtested at all, and written with
a lot of recent discussion about bloodlines in mind.
I propose this system as an alternative to the one presented in the BRCS
0.0 Draft. The system is designed with a number of things in mind: game
balance, simplicity of use, preservation of the original rules, and
addressing major problems. The system tries to give players and DMs a lot
of options to decide how they want to do things in their own game.
I make a very important distinction in this system between
adventuring/interpersonal play and domain play.
Here's how the system works.
1. Determine your ability scores after consulting your DM; your DM will
tell you whether your campaign is using a point-buy system or rolling=
system.
2. Choose race.
3. After consulting the DM, choose whether your character will be a
commoner or a scion.
4. If your character is a commoner, continue with the character creation
process as normal.
5. If your character is a scion, consult your DM. Your DM will tell you
whether your campaign is using a point-buy system for bloodlines or a
random determination system.
6. If your campaign is using random determination for bloodlines, consult
the tables in the 2e Birthright Rulebook. After rolling d100, determine
your bloodline strength. Use the table on p.34 of the BRCS Draft to
determine derivation. Return to the 2nd edition BR rulebook to determine
the remaining characteristics of your bloodline.
7. If your campaign is using the point-buy system for bloodlines, refer to
the following table:
Point buy system for bloodlines.
The average bloodline score, using Table 10 on p. 20 of the Birthright
Rulebook, is 19.7. Math: .25(10)+.4(17.5)+.3(28)+.05(36) =3D 19.7. From this=
,
I've decided that the average point buy result for this system should be a
minor or major bloodline in the 18-21 range.
The default number of points which you have to spend is 20. Your DM may
decide to increase or decrease the number of points you get for a bloodline
point buy in your campaign. You can spend points on the following things:
" Each point you spend gets you 1 point of bloodline score.
" Pick a derivation. Alternatively, your DM may decide to determine
derivation randomly using the table on p.34 of the BRCS Draft.
" Consult the following table to see how many blood abilities are available
in your character's bloodline. These abilities are not useable at the
beginning of play; your character must learn to use them (covered below).
You may choose these yourself, or they may be determined randomly, at the
DMs discretion.
Score Abilities
1-10 None
11-19 1 Minor
20-28 2 Minor
29-35 1 Minor, 1 Major
36-42 2 Minor, 1 Major
43-50 1 Minor, 1 Major, 1 Great
51-60 2 Minor, 1 Major, 1 Great
61-70 1 Minor, 2 Major, 1 Great
71-80 2 Minor, 2 Major, 1 Great
81-90 2 Minor, 1 Major, 2 Great
91-100 2 Minor, 2 Major, 2 Great
100+ 3 Minor, 2 Major, 2 Great
" You may spend 1 point to start with the Bloodmark blood ability, which
can be a benefit and a hindrance.=20
" You may spend up to 2 additional points adding minor blood abilities to
your bloodline. Each point spent gets you 1 additional minor ability in
your line. Of course, you cannot use these abilities automatically, your
character must learn to use them during play.
" You may spend 2 points improving a minor ability to a major ability. For
instance, if your DM decided on a 20 point buy for bloodlines, and you
spent 17 points on bloodline score and you have 2 minor abilities (1 extra
purchased for 1 point), you may spend your remaining 2 points to upgrade
one of your minor blood abilities to a major blood ability, giving you
access to 1 minor and 1 major.
" At the DMs discretion, you may spend 4 points upgrading a major ability
to a great ability. This option is generally only suitable if the DM allows
more than a 20-point bloodline build.
It is important to note: once your bloodline score has been used to
determine the number of blood abilities in your line, IT IS NO LONGER USED
AT THE ADVENTURING LEVEL OF PLAY!! The only thing the bloodline score
determines, from here on out, is how many RP your character can collect by
ruling a domain. This is unchanged from the 2nd edition rules.
At this stage, you have determined your bloodline score, derivation, and
number of blood abilities available in your line. To determine your
bloodline strength, simply compare your bloodline score to the following
table:
Score Strength
None Unblooded
0 Divested
1-13 Tainted
14-22 Minor
23-32 Major
33-64 Great
65+ True
Note: this table is determined using the average scores for various
bloodlines, as described on p. 20 of the original BR rulebook. Tainted is
average 10, Minor is average 17.5, so the cutoff is at 13, etc.
Once your bloodline strength is determined, it can only change at the
discretion of the DM, unless you decide to divest your bloodline, in which
case your bloodline score becomes 0 and your strength becomes divested.
Your bloodline score may increase or decrease during play, but your
strength only changes if the DM decides a change is warranted. For
instance, you may start with a bloodline score of 20 (minor) and through
play, increase it to 40. However, it remains a minor bloodline unless the
DM decides to promote it to major or great.
Optional Rule: Your DM may use the following table to determine ranges for
bloodlines:
Strength Score Range
Tainted 4-16
Minor 5-30
Major 8-48
Great 8-64
True 35+
If your bloodline moves out of the proscribed ranges, your bloodline
strength automatically changes to the next highest or lowest category. For
instance, if you have a minor bloodline (26), and during play it increases
to 31, your bloodline strength automatically increases to major. Likewise,
if you have a major bloodline, and your score falls below 8, your bloodline
strength automatically becomes minor.
At this point, your character's bloodline and blood abilities available to
him should be fully fleshed out. Proceed as normal with the character
creation process, choosing feats, classes, skills, and equipment (and
whatever else your DM requires).
Furthermore, at this point in the process, there should be absolutely no
difference between a scion and a commoner at the adventuring level of play.
Both are exactly the same level, have the same number of experience points
(0 if starting at level 1), have the same attributes (if using a point buy
or discounting luck on dice), and rolled hit points the same way. The only
potential advantage the scion has at the adventuring level of play is the
Bloodmark ability, which may or may not be useful, depending on the
campaign (and exactly what we finally decide its effect is). In any case
the Bloodmark ability alone should not be enough to significantly alter the
balance between a scion and a commoner.
The main difference between the scion and the commoner is that the scion
has a Bloodline score, and can therefore participate at the domain level of
play by collecting regency points. Bloodline score works the same as 2e in
all other ways - you collect RP equal to your bloodline score, you have to
spend RP equal to your bloodline score+1 to raise it by one point, etc,
etc. I don't consider this an imbalance because commoners were never meant
to participate at the domain level of play.
Acquiring Blood Abilities
As we all know, the blood abilities themselves are the kicker when trying
to balance scions versus commoners. In 2e this problem was addressed by
giving commoners a 10% xp bonus. In order to preserve the flavor of 2e as
well as a semblance of balance, some kind of xp penalty should be assessed
against scions.=20
This system requires a scion to pay experience points to learn how to use a
blood ability. By default there is no time requirement; DMs can require you
to spend time to learn your blood abilities, or you can pay xp and
immediately use your blood abilities right after the expenditure of xp.=20
The way this works is that each blood ability is compared to a magical
item. After determining what the blood ability would be like if it were a
magical item, consult the DMG for the item creation costs of that ability.
Since blood abilities don't take up item slots, the x2 multiplier for
"slotless" items should always be used. After taking all modifiers to the
base price into account, divide by 25 (to get the xp cost), which is the
cost of "learning" the blood ability.=20
XP spent in this manner is forever lost, just like XP invested in an item.
If for whatever reason you become unblooded or lose your blood abilities,
that XP is lost, just as if a magical item of yours was lost or destroyed.
Here are a few examples (my conversions for blood abilities are not
necessarily taken from the BRCS doc):
Let's start with the simplest of blood abilities, Heightened Ability=
(minor).
Basaia's Heightened Ability (minor) gives a +2 bloodline bonus to
Intelligence. It is a constant effect. Checking the DMG for the price of a
Headband of Intellect +2, we see that it is 4000gp (bonus squared x1000).
Applying the modifier for slotless (x2) we get 8000. The XP cost to make
one is 1/25 the base price, or 320xp in this case. So to "learn" to use
Heightened Ability (minor), you have to spend 320 of your experience
points. Here's an example:
Jimbob is a scion who (using the point buy) has a bloodline of Br, minor,
20. This gives him 2 minor abilities (which can be randomly determined
using the tables on pp. 39-40 of the BRCS draft or chosen by the player, at
the discretion of the DM) one of which is Heightened Ability. Jimbob is
also a level 1 fighter, with 0 experience. Since he has no experience, he
can't "spend" any of it on blood abilities. Therefore, he is exactly equal
to his longtime friend Joe Blow, who is an unblooded commoner, and also a
1st level fighter with 0 xp.
Now let's say each of our heroes gain 2000xp , enough to make them both 2nd
level fighters. At this point Jimbob can choose to "spend" 320 of his
experience points to activate his Heightened Ability (Brenna's dexterity).
He now has 1680 xp and a +2 bloodline bonus to his dexterity score, whereas
Joe Blow has 2000xp.
Now I am aware that this method doesn't match the 10% xp bonus of second
edition. For instance, in our example above Joe Blow is 19% ahead in
experience points. At level 20, his XP advantage would be minuscule. To me
it is not a huge problem, but YMMV. I'd like to hear any ideas about how to
solve this issue.
Heightened Ability scales really well, to Heightened Ability (major)
granting a +4, and great granting a +6. The XP costs would be 1280xp and
2880xp, respectively.
A couple more conversions (I am trying to find different examples that
cause problems in different ways):
Alter Appearance: the scion can cast change self once per day, with caster
level =3D character level. This is problematic because for magical items, th=
e
caster level cost is fixed. For this ability I will assume caster level 10
for price purposes because it is close to the middle (assuming you buy it
at level 1 and keep using it through level 20). Another problem comes to
mind: a blood ability is not spell trigger, command word, or use-activated.
How do you calculate the costs for items that cast a spell simply by force
of will? If someone can point me to the right answer I would be most
appreciative.
Alertness: This counts as a virtual Alertness feat (for the purposes of
prereqs). You get a +2 to spot and listen. This is easy to convert. 4^2 x
20gp x 2 =3D 640gp base price, or an XP cost of 25.6 (round to 25). This is =
a
really cheap blood ability to buy; good thing the system restricts how many
blood abilities you can have! This would be a good case to argue for
converting the gold cost as well. In that case the xp cost would become a
more respectable 153.6.
Resistance, Poison (minor): This ability grants a +4 bloodline bonus to
saves vs poison. This converts really easily as a periapt of proof against
poison, 4000gp base price. XP cost to learn it would be 320xp.
Travel (great): Let's compare this to the Helm of Teleportation. Since
Travel is useable only once a day, and HoT is useable 3/day, so let's
divide the base cost of the helm (48,600) by 3, for a total of 16,200. Now
the helm has no restrictions on its use, but Travel does, so let's just say
that travel is about half as useful, resulting in a divide by 2. However,
since Travel is slotless, we multiply by 2. Still at 16,200. Now divide by
25, and we get an XP cost of 648. A little cheap for something as powerful
as Travel, but I didn't claim this system was perfect. If we use the x6 for
the gold here we get a cost of 3888xp, which sounds more reasonable.
Enhanced Sense (Brenna): This gives the sight and hearing of cats;
according to the BRCS doc, 60ft darkvision and +2 on listen checks. Pretty
close to the goggles of night, which are 8000gp base cost. So we take
(8000gp + (2^2 x 20)) x 2 / 25 for a total of 646.6xp. Think this is about
as powerful as Travel? I doubt it=85 but that's probably more an indication
of the prices for items being out of whack in the DMG.
Unreadable Thoughts: pretty close to the Ring of Mind Shielding. 8000gp
base cost, comes out to 640xp. Seems reasonable for this ability (twice as
useful as Heightened Ability minor).
Obviously this system is far from perfect. We may have to abandon strict
conversions from DMG prices and just assign XP costs to blood abilities. I
don't know yet - I need some feedback, as well as some more time to think.
The system does have several things going for it
1. It puts the CHOICE in the hands of players whether or not to be behind
in XP. It doesn't automatically hamstring scions like the ECL and bloodline
as a 7th ability score systems do. If you want your scion/regent to be just
as competitive as your commoner friend, you can continue your adventuring
and just choose not to devote any time to learning how to use your blood
abilities. Overall, pure balance between scions and commoners is preserved
for the purposes of challenge ratings and such, hopefully satisfying one
group of people. At the same time this system makes scions slightly more
powerful in that 1) they have a choice to buy blood abilities, and
versatility is a form of power and 2) they can get access to some "magic
items" in a rare-magic setting, thereby hopefully satisfying the people in
the "scions should be stronger" camp.
2. This is actually 2 different systems. A character can still have a
bloodline without having any blood abilities (in theory). The blood
abilities are what cause the balance of power to shift in favor of the
scions, not the bloodline score itself (which has no impact on
adventuring). Theoretically we could still use the point-buy system to buy
bloodline but use ECLs to determine blood abilities, for example.
3. The XP for bloodline system avoids the mess you get when you use the ECL
for bloodline system, and you have a scion that suddenly loses his
bloodline. Say you have a character with a +2 ECL bloodline who is
character level 11, class level 9 (55,000 xp). What happens if he gets
divested of his bloodline? Do his experience points suddenly fall to 36,000
(level 9)? Does he suddenly get to add new class levels? What happens when
he gets his bloodline back?
ECL for bloodlines is not a robust system because bloodline scores are
generally supposed to vary widely during play. In very few campaigns will
your bloodline remain static for your character's whole life.
4. The system is also easily houseruled. Again the system gives the
players/DM the choice of enforcing balance among PCs (bloodline point buy,
nobody gets hosed by bad rolls) and allowing the DM to easily adjust the
power level of the campaign (increase/decrease the bloodline buy points).
There's a second choice built in: DMs that liked the randomness of
bloodlines can continue to use the old system without a problem (perhaps
they want to use random for NPCs but point-buy for PCs). NPCs still have
to pay XP costs to learn their blood abilities, just like PCs.
5. It preserves the "spirit" of 2e, by creating a way in which commoners
can be ahead of scions in experience.
6. Assuming we get the XP costs for blood abilities worked out, it will be
very simple to use.
7. The system fully incorporates 3e mechanics at the adventuring level of
play (blood abilities).
8. The system helps alleviate (to some extent) the shortage of magical
items in Cerilia, and the impact that lack of items can have on CRs.
Problems with the system. There are a few I can think of right away:
1. The XP costs for blood abilities may be way out of whack. This isn't a
problem symptomatic of the system; we can easily change the individual
costs of blood abilities without affecting how the system works as a whole.
This is the part that I'll need the most help tweaking, since I don't know
the 3e item creation rules inside and out yet.
2. Scions are effectively getting an item creation feat for free. There's
an easy way to solve this if we do decide it is a problem: require a scion
to take the "blooded scion" feat before he can spend XP on blood abilities.
Blooded scion will essentially function like a specialized item creation
feat that allows you to expend XP to learn blood abilities that are
available to you in your bloodline (predetermined in most cases).
3. The XP penalty for scions, in terms of a percentage, will widely from
the 10% baseline in 2e. The reason is that XP costs for bloodlines are a
flat expediture rather than multiplicative like an XP bonus. I don't see
this as a big deal because in 2e the 10% bonus only really mattered at high
level, and in this system the effect of the XP costs are felt throughout
(since they tend to be larger as a percentage than 10% at the early levels,
which is where most of BR gaming takes place).